Ten epic moments faster than the slowest frame in World Snooker Championship history as Mark Allen and Wu Yize smash record

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Mark Allen and Wu Yize played out the longest frame in Halo World Championship history on Friday, in an excruciating battle of wills that lasted an agonising 100 minutes and 21 seconds.

An hour without a pot: Re-live remarkable longest Crucible frame between Wu and Allen

Video credit: TNT Sports

The second old school session of a Crucible semi-final almost grinding to a halt saw the 14th frame go down in the history books with neither man potting a ball for an hour.

In some farcical scenes, referee Marcel Eckardt appeared to discuss a potential re-rack with Allen, but ultimately refused to get involved in attempting to dislodge a blockage of reds gathered around the black at the top right-hand pocket.

Not surprisingly, the elongated session ended two frames early after Allen had recovered from 6-2 behind on Thursday to restore parity at 7-7.

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The longest frame in snooker history remains David Gilbert's 10-9 final-frame win over Fergal O'Brien during the 2017 World Championship qualifiers, which saw the decider run for a gruelling two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds.

But Allen and Wu's 14th frame is hardly the poor relation in moving as fast as rust.

Here are 10 things you could do before Allen and Wu finally called time on their longest frame at a brutal one hour, 40 minutes and 21 seconds.

'A tactical move' - Allen ends stalemate by potting black

Video credit: TNT Sports

1. Revel in Rocket's world-record 147 break

Ronnie O'Sullivan produced his spellbinding effort in five minutes and eight seconds at the 1997 World Championship, initially wrongly clocked at five minutes and 20 seconds, in a 10-6 win over Mick Price in the first round.

Which means you could watch Rocket Ronnie's golden maximum around 20 times before Allen and Wu finally finish up.

2. Sit through the previous longest frame

Mark Selby and Yan Bingtao managed to last 85 minutes and 22 seconds in the 22nd frame of their second-round match in 2022.

Yan edged the titanic frame 63-49 before winning the match 13-10. It is, of course, a record that no longer stands. Not that either man will probably be complaining.

Referee Rob Spencer, who will take charge of this year's final, also famously laid down the law to former Masters champion Yan during the gruelling second-round battle.

With Yan leading Selby 10-7, Spencer refused Yan's request to clean the white ball as he worked out if he could bend the cue ball beyond the blue to pot the final brown.

After studying the shot for over three minutes, Yan attracted plenty of derision for turning to Spencer with Selby left shaking his head in disbelief as Yan indulged in some gamesmanship.

3. Enjoy PSG and Bayern's Champions League classic

The European champions enjoyed a glorious 5-4 win over Bayern Munich in the first leg of an astonishing semi-final on Tuesday that is already a contender for the greatest game in the modern history of the tournament.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele both scored twice for the home side in what proved to be an enthralling, instant-classic at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

"It was such an extraordinary game, with two sides performing at such an incredible level," said PSG coach Luis Enrique.

"I am so tired, and I didn't even run a kilometre. The match had everything. There were a lot of ebbs and flows. It is a moment to congratulate the players, the two sides, and all of those present here."

Roll on the second leg on Wednesday in Munich.

Highlights: PSG beat Bayern in wild nine-goal epic

Video credit: TNT Sports

4. Watch the crew of Artemis II reach space

Talking about rocket launches, the recent NASA mission took around nine days to reach the far side of the moon and back, but only nine minutes to hit space.

Which means you can watch them reach for the stars 11 times over.

Allen and Wu took a lot less time to discover the dark side of snooker back on planet snooker.

The Artemis II astronauts, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of CSA (Canadian Space Agency) celebrate after ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq Marketside on April 30, 2026 in New York City.

Image credit: Getty Images

5. Dig out Trainspotting 30 years after its release

Danny Boyle's celebrated black comedy, based on the Irvine Welsh book by the same name and centred around the dark side of 1980s Edinburgh, was released in cinemas 30 years ago in February.

With a run time of 93 minutes, it would be done and dusted before Allen and Wu concluded the colours in Sheffield.

Where, unlike the villainous Trainspotting character Francis Begbie, nobody was playing like Paul Newman.

Director Danny Boyle attends the photocall of the movie Trainspotting 2.

Image credit: Getty Images

6. Rerun Fury's two epic title bouts with Usyk

With rumours of a third fight between the heavyweight icons in the pipeline, catch up with their first two battles of style and substance.

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk fought out a couple of epic bouts in 2024, the first one for the undisputed heavyweight crown, with the unbeaten Ukraine great twice emerging victorious on points.

At 12 rounds of three minutes each, you can easily watch both fights before catching up with the conclusion of the longest frame.

No Filter: Usyk delivers masterclass to beat Fury and retain titles in epic rematch

Video credit: TNT Sports

7. Watch 22 miles of men's world-record marathon

Kenya's running machine Sabastian Sawe became the first man in history to dip under two hours in winning last weekend's London Marathon with a staggering time of 1:59:30.

This means you could watch 22 miles of his remarkable run as Allen and Wu reach the death throes of their agonising run.

"I saw the time, and I was so excited," said Sawe. "First of all I want to thank the crowds. They help a lot. They helped a lot. You feel so happy and strong and pushing.

"What comes for me today is not for me alone, but all of us in London."

Yomif Kejelcha, who finished second, also recorded a sub-two-hour time of 1:59:41 on his London Marathon debut.

WATCH: Sawe breaks two-hour barrier to set new world record at London Marathon

Video credit: TNT Sports

8. Witness Swiatek's record-breaking Wimbledon win

Iga Swiatek cruised to victory and a first Wimbledon title in 2025 via a 6-0 6-0 drubbing of the unfortunate Amanda Anisimova in only 57 minutes.

The four-time French Open champion took under an hour to win and did not drop a single game in a remarkably one-sided match on Centre Court.

The Pole also achieved only the second double bagel in a Grand Slam singles final in the Open Era.

All this and more while they were still getting warmed up at the snooker.

Wimbledon Highlights: Swiatek dominates Anisimova to secure singles glory

Video credit: SNTV

9. Relive Team GB strike gold at Winter Olympics

The 2026 Milano-Cortina Games were Team GB’s greatest as Matt Weston achieved double gold in around five minutes, after Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale had themselves struck gold in the mixed team snowboard cross final.

Weston secured his second gold alongside team-mate Tabitha Stoecker in the mixed skeleton at the Cortina Sliding Centre.

A fast and furious finish to enjoy over and over inside 100 minutes.

Watch: Weston delivers EPIC gold for Team GB

Video credit: TNT Sports

10. Marvel at Marchand's pool magic in Paris

France’s Leon Marchand beat Great Britain’s Duncan Scott to win the men’s 200m individual medley and claim his fourth gold medal of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The 22-year-old, arguably the outstanding performer at the Games, set a new Olympic record to obliterate the field, with China's Wang Shun taking bronze.

Marchand's masterclass sent the euphoric crowd inside the La Defense Arena wild.

He claimed gold in every individual event entered, adding the 200m medley title to his previous successes in the 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly, achieved on the same day, and 400m medley.

It was all fished from the pool in under 10 minutes, a whopping 90 minutes less than the Crucible's frame for the ages.